Product Planning Success Tips

I had a great evening listening to my business students' presentations on Leading Global Brands Product Management Techniques. I came away with a few insights myself:

• Changes in Technology and Lifestyles are big drivers of new business opportunities
• Leading Brands started with an Innovative Concept. Invariably they enjoyed 'First Mover' advantage. 
• They grew over the successive years through filling out their Product Line to support the original concept.
• The major successes over the last decade have been in either Services or Information components of the Supply Chain
• They took advantage of a 'new' under-served customer group (take for instance Starbucks and the new young urbanites & Apple and the new mobile lifestyle)
• As they grew they continued to innovate through large R&D budgets

If you are interested in growing your business through better Product Planning, send me an email at coachbengo@gmail.com and I'll be happy to visit you and chat on the possibilities. 

What must I do to be Successfully Innovative

Recently one of my Business Associates, Marcia Potts, sent me this brief question on Facebook:

Coach, what to do to be innovative and creative in order to earn some of this kind of doe (Like Apple recent record sales)? I am hoping to have some...even if it is 0.50%.

After some thought I responded as follows:

Hi Marcia, I agree with your wishes. The challenge is (1) To see the immediate future, (2) Understand your customers hopes and aspirations in this new future and (3) Be willing to take calculated risks in helping them achieve their dreams.

A brief question and a brief Facebook answer. But not so easy to do!

To really see the immediate future is to be constantly scanning your particular industry and associated industries and capturing the immediate trends. This is more of an art, a skill really, to differentiate what are just fads from what are truly trends. This is not analysis but synthesis, not breaking down and analyzing information and data but being able to pick up the varying clues and snippets of information and joining them to make a judgement or intuition. I believe Steve Jobs and Apple understood the shift away from desk-work to mobile social communication coupled with entertainment and its implications before most of us.

Then to understand your customers' hopes and dreams in this new evolving environment is not so much asking them through focus groups and questionnaires but in anticipating their aspirations even before they have them. In a sense it is knowing them better than they know themselves. Again the Apple Team understood the evolving dream to be able to easily create and consume personal multimedia content while on the go. This also is not analysis but insight through brainstorming.

And then the final step, to be willing to take calculated risks in helping them achieve their dreams. Apple did this by creating the new MacBooks with iLearn software, combined this with the iPod, iPhone and then iPad. Here again the genius is in the design. As Disney another mega successful creator says in their Process...First Dream and then Dare.

If you are interested in growing your business through Innovation send me an email at coachbengo@gmail.com and I'll be happy to visit you and chat on the possibilities.

Celebrating 8 yrs as a Business Coach

I can't believe it. But its true! When you are having fun time flies.

Its already eight years since I nervously left the security of a high paying/high flying Corporate Marketing Executive job and embarked on the adventure of being a self employed Business Coach specializing in Sales, Marketing and Customer Service. And what a ride it has been. Surprisingly, it has been the best years of my working career.

There have been times that I have missed the corporate flights to exotic lands, the VIP invitations to grand special events, the pictures and name in the newspapers, rubbing shoulders with the who's who and of course the guaranteed monthly salary and pleasant smiles of the bankers.

But I have gained so much more: the opportunity to chart my own course, more time with my family, being able to build a family business along with my wife, developing my God given talents, having time to devote to my church and surprisingly achieving better financial security. And all this in addition to: no more unending office meetings, no more office games and no more manipulated end of year reviews.

Its been an exciting eight years and the adventure has just begun. I have so many more plans, so many more paths off the beaten track to explore. No doubt some will be dead ends but with God's help a few will lead on to Glory.
"Sancho..my armour, my sword...Our destiny calls, and we go
And the wild winds of fortune
Shall carry us onward"

If you are interested in growing your business through Business Coaching send me an email at coachbengo@gmail.com and I'll be happy to visit you and chat on the possibilities.

Focus on Running

Recently, after much persuasion, I started running daily with my younger, fitter wife. In an effort to keep up with her rate of running I have been trying to improve my technique. Gradually I have realized that to run effectively I must run upright, swing my bent arms forward and backward in time with my strides, keep my head level and look forward to a goal far off while at the same time keep a look out for where I will place my next step.

It then occurred to me that running is much like leading a business. We operate a family business, Sandee Communications, offering Sales & Marketing Solutions, and I can see many similarities with my running effort.

We have to identify goals far off into the future and move steadfastly towards them while at the same time staying aware of our immediate surroundings and making immediate adjustments less we stumble and fall. And when we approach one goal we must then switch to another further ahead, always moving forward.

As a family business depending on personal services we have to maintain an identity and image of integrity and so we have to operate upright with our heads held high, not stooping to low dodges for a quick dollar.

And we must manage our strides making sure they are consistent and determined towards our goals, not resting in a comfort zone and stopping well short of our destination.

And swinging our arms rhythmically in time with our strides, keeping balance, reminds me that our day to day management must be in tandem with our strides forward, making sure our planning, organizing, directing and control keeps our organization fit for the immediate purpose.

I am making improvements in my running and I am closing the gap with my wife, now let me translate this success to our business.

If you are interested in growing your business through my coaching services send me an email at coachbengo@gmail.com and I'll be happy to visit you and chat on the possibilities.

Successful Business through Faith

Jesus said to them, "Children, have you caught anything to eat?" They answered him, "No." So he said to them, "Cast the net over the right side of the boat and you will find something." So they cast it, and were not able to pull it in because of the number of fish. ... "Bring some of the fish you just caught." So Simon Peter went over and dragged the net ashore full of one hundred fifty-three large fish. Even though there were so many, the net was not torn. Jn 21 1-19


This Bible passage says to me that our business ventures can succeed with the help of Jesus Christ.


Very often we labour 'all night' only to find that we have caught nothing. We may have identified a good service, prepared a good business plan and worked hard at implementing the plan, yet we find no success. Like the fishermen you may feel tired, discouraged and dejected.

Just recently our business sent out many quotes looking forward to a good catch of projects only to find our nets empty. It is at times like these I turn to Jesus Christ and this bible passage and once again throw our nets down on the right side hoping for a large catch and I am not disappointed.

Business Associate if you find yourself in this position today I urge you once again to prepare your nets, turn to Jesus Christ and lower your nets on the right side with FAITH and I promise you, you wouldn't be disappointed.

If you are interested in growing your business through Faith and proper planning send me an email at coachbengo@gmail.com and I'll be happy to visit you and chat on the possibilities.

Leadership through Service

Rather, whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all. St.Mark

The recent war of words between Wall Street and the US political directorate is interesting. Apparently many of the Wall Street institutions have used the “bailout” funds to play the trading floor and make considerable profits in the 3rd Quarter 2009. This despite the fact that lending to small businesses remain tight and unemployment continues to rise. If the political directorate is right (and naive) the hoped for usage of the funds for the betterment of Main Street has not come about. Instead it has been used for self interest of the few.

This leads us back to St Mark’s quotation of Jesus Christ. Unless as a people and as businesses we strive to serve the  many instead of the few we will all be faced with contraction instead of expansion.

As business people our effort should be for the betterment of the many, for both employees and customers. How can we strive in each of our business to serve the bottom of the pyramid? Can we use modern day technology to make our products and services more available for the many?

I suggest we all re-look at our value chain, in particular the distribution end and at our product portfolio to see if we can serve the many instead of the few.

If you are interested in growing your business through Leadership in Customer Service send me an email at coachbengo@gmail.com and I'll be happy to visit you and chat on the possibilities.

Small may be Better

When we consider a number of events coming together in this first decade of the new Century: (i) the recent “developed world” credit meltdown, (ii) the economic recession (iii) the fast accelerating Climate Change Scenario  (iv) the explosive growth in China and India (v) the new age of the knowledge worker - then probably - Small may be Better

Small is lower cost, it creates a smaller carbon footprint, it is more sustainable.

Are we witnessing the dawn of a new age of small: small business, small cars, small homes, small phones, small computers, small movies (YouTube), small consumption, small salaries, small online schools???

Is this just a hiccup in the Global growth train or are we witnessing a paradigm shift in values? Can one's business be small but still great?

If you are interested in making your small business Great send me an email at coachbengo@gmail.com and I'll be happy to visit you and chat on the possibilities.